The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in the 19 Northern States and Abuja has lamented the action of Kano State Attorney General who return a no case submission on the five suspects who were said to have taken part in the killing of one Mrs. Bridget Agbahime for allegedly blasphemy.
The Christian body regretted the judgment that discharged the suspects, while calling on the Attorney General of the Federation to urgently call the Kano State Attorney General to order to ensure that justice was seen to be done in the case.
The five men were set free by a Kano Magistrate Court on Thursday.
The Principal State Counsel, Rabiu Yusuf, representing the Attorney-General of Kano State, said he was told to discontinue the charges against the accused.
He told the court that they received the case diary from the Police on June 8.
“Having gone through the case diary, the Attorney-General of Kano State evaluated the facts in accordance with Sections 130 and150 of the Criminal Procedure Code, presented the legal advice,” Yusuf said.
“The legal advice presented to the court, dated June 24, states that there is no case to answer as the suspects are all innocent and orders the court to discharge all the suspects.”
But the association’s Public Relations Officer, Rev. John Joseph Hayab, while speaking to newsmen in Kaduna, Saturday said the judgment has further brought the judiciary into serious attack, stressing that more needs to be done to ensure the judiciary discharge its duty credibly.
Hayab lamented that after all facts presented against the suspects, there was no justification for the Kano State Attorney General through the Principal State Counsel, Rabiu Yusuf to have told the court that they had no case to answer.
“The legal advice presented to the court dated June 24, states that there is no case to answer as the suspects are all innocent.
“This action can only encourage people to take laws into their hands since evil is seen to be unpunished and many other groups will be tempted to harm or kill inocent citizens under any and every false guise since they can buy their freedom from the courts,” he stressed.
Rev. Hayab however assured that CAN would not relent in spite of the judgement already passed, but until justice is seen to have been done.
He enjoined Christians and the general public to remain calm assuring that all avenues would be explored to ensure that justice is done.
The five suspects are Zubairu Abubakar, Musa Abdullahi, Dauda Ahmed, Abdullahi Abubakar and Abdulmumeen Mustafa, they were accused of hacking Mrs Agbahime to death.u
It would be recalled that the 74 year-old, Mrs. Agbahime, an Imo indigene was murdered on June 2, 2016 in Kofar Wambai Market in the state over alleged blasphemy.